The present invention relates to a top guide for a fishing rod. More particularly, the invention relates to a top guide for a fishing rod, provided with a guide ring retainer portion for retaining a guide ring, a cylindrical mounting pipe into which a tip end portion of the fishing rod is to be inserted, a bridge which extends downwardly and backwardly from right and left sides of the guide ring retainer portion, in which a rear end portion of the bridge is fixed to an outer circumferential surface of the mounting pipe from below. The invention relates to an improvement in a top guide for a fishing rod in which a shape of the bridge is contrived to reduce a possibility of hooking of lines.
A conventional top guide mounted on a tip end portion of a fishing rod, in particular, a top guide mounted on a so-called external line-pass type fishing rod, in general, is composed of a guide ring retainer, a mounting pipe and a connecting means for connecting these components. The tip end portion of the fishing rod is inserted into the mounting pipe.
In addition, a middle or larger size top guide is often provided with the plurality of the above-described connecting means.
FIGS. 6 and 7 show an example a of such a type of conventional fishing rod top guide.
In FIGS. 6 and 7, reference character b denotes a frame made of metal which is composed of a guide ring retainer c in the form of a ring, a bridge d extending downwardly and backwardly from both right and left sides of the guide ring retainer, and a leg piece e having a relatively short length and extending substantially downwardly and backwardly from the lower end portion of the guide ring retainer c. The bridge d is substantially in the form of a trapezoid having a short width on the right and left as viewed from above and having a shape of J-letter turned down 90 degree as viewed from the side. The rear end portion f is bent downwardly in a semicircular shape. Reference character g denotes a mounting pipe made of metal. A rear portion of the leg piece e is inserted into the front end portion of the mounting pipe. The middle portion of the mounting pipe g is laid on the rear end portion f of the bridge d. The outer circumferential surface of the mounting pipe a and the rear end portion f of the bridge d are connected together by welding or brazing. The leg piece e and the front end face of the mounting pipe g are connected together by welding or brazing. Then, the frame b and the mounting pipe g are connected into one piece.
A guide ring h is fitted inside of the guide ring retainer portion c.
A tip end portion of the fishing rod i is inserted into the mounting pipe g from the back side. Thus, the top guide a is mounted on the fishing rod i. The fishing line j is inserted into the guide ring h.
The guide for the fishing rod should meet the requirement that the entanglement of fishing line be avoided as much as possible.
In this respect, the above-described top guide a suffers from various problems. Namely, clearly-stepped portions k, k and k are formed at position where the rear end portion f of the bridge d and the outer circumferential surface of the mounting pipe g are continuous with each other. There would be a fear that the fishing line j would be hooked at the position of the stepped portions k, k and k. Thus, it would be impossible to release and retrieve the fishing line j.
Also, the shape of the bridge d is in a shape of J-letter turned down 90 degree as viewed from the side. A large part of the bridge d projects above a line connecting both ends. For this reason, when the fishing line j is tensioned under the condition that the fishing line has passed through the inside of the bridged as shown by two-dot-and-dash line in FIG. 7, the fishing line a is often unable to escape out of the bridge d. This causes the entanglement of the fishing line.